Work of the Week - Toshio Hosokawa: Autumn Wind

For many years, Toshio Hosokawa has been one of the central figures on the international music scene receiving numerous commissions and performances around the world. On Sunday 11th of September, Hosokawa’s latest work, Autumn Wind for shakuhachi and orchestra will receive its world premiere at the MITO Settembre Musica Festival in Torino, Italy with soloist Tadashi Tajima (photo) and the Filarmonica ’900 conducted by Daniel Kawka. The rare shakuhachi instrument, a traditional Japanese bamboo flute, is one that Hosokawa has written for in the past in the works Voyage X and Fragmente I, other composers to have written for the instrument include fellow Japanese composer Toshio Ichiyanagi, Chinese composer Xiaogang Ye and British Composer Gavin Bryars.

Writing about the new piece, Hosokawa tells us:

In spite of its simple shape, the shakuhachi has a wide range of expression: it can make both a violent and a graceful sound. The shakuhachi represents a human being, while the orchestra can be taken as the universe and nature existing within and without the human figure. A song of a human being is connected with the root of nature more and more deeply through the dialogue between the shakuhachi and the orchestra. A second performance will take place at the festival the following day this time at the Auditorium di Milano Fondazione Cariplo.

You can also hear new music by Hosokawa in Berlin with the premiere of Singing Garden in Venice on the 8th September (further performances on the 10th and 11th) at the Radialsystem V with soloists from of the Academy of Early Music Berlin and the recorder player Jeremias Schwarzer.

• Toshio Hosokawa - Profile
• Festival Settembre Musica
• Academy for Early Music Berlin